After working nearly non-stop on "One Big Crunch" after getting home from work the last few days, I finished another draft last night. I tightened it considerably, then added another scene and an epilogue. It went from 2200 to 3600 words, and I think it's a much better story. I'll proofread it one more time today, then send it to Janet, Mike, and Jamie for one more look-over before emailing it to Tim Mullins at The Dream Engine. He said he probably would have published it as it was before, but I'm glad he didn't. I was able to go back and expand upon a story that originally only took a couple of days to write, hammered out in rage and frustration, and make it an actual story.

Big congratulations go out to fellow 2002 Clarionite Brendan Day for the acceptance of his story "Last Man on Earth" into Polyphony 2. There was one spot left in the anthology, to be filled by an unknown unpublished writer, and though my story "Wake Up Call" was shortlisted but not accepted, I'm glad Brendan's was. He read the story at one of the Clarion readings, and I remember liking it quite a bit, and was a little suprised since it was so unlike his other fiction. It's his first pro publication.